


it got cold and dark so suddenly

by against_stars



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Dwarf Commoner Origin, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:37:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6543325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/against_stars/pseuds/against_stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Apollo Brosca sees rain, there's enough wild shit going on around her that spontaneous sky-based water expulsion is not high on her list of pressing concerns.</p><p>The second time she sees rain, it's more complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it got cold and dark so suddenly

The first time Apollo Brosca sees rain, there's enough wild shit going on around her that spontaneous sky-based water expulsion is not high on her list of pressing concerns.

Primarily, her list of concerns is as follows:

  * the enormous army of darkspawn



After that, in descending order of likelihood:

  * getting to the Tower of Ishal (involves darkspawn)
  * setting some stone-curst beacon on fire (involves darkspawn)
  * surviving the night (definitely involves darkspawn)



The water doesn't strike her as particularly noteworthy over the rest of the battle. there's lights flashing on the ceiling _—_ _sky_ , it's a sky, she's got to remember it's a sky now _—_ but there's also lights flashing from the big magic folk, and from the big magic darkspawn. There's horrible noises, but they're coming from everywhere. The very air itself seems to be loud and destructive, and there's masonry crashing all over the place, as if somehow the darkspawn had gotten ahold of some lyrium charges and were setting them off with no concern for tactical positioning.

When they get into the tower, the water and the lights don't much matter anymore. When they light the beacon and get riddled with a dozen arrows between them, nothing matters anymore.

Then she wakes up in a little hut, not as dead as having seen three arrows sticking out of her chest had led her to believe, and the air is clear and quiet, so she puts the whole business out of her mind as a matter of surface warfare.

-

The second time Apollo Brosca sees rain, it's more complicated.

They're three days with lothering at their backs, and she doesn't want to say anything because she doesn't want to look stupid among all these big cloudheads, but it seems night's coming a lot faster today than it has been the last few days.

"Gettin' dark," she comments to no one, absolutely super casual.

Morrigan and Sten ignore her, but they have done for a while, and frankly the less attention Sten gives her the better, because he could probably pick her up and throw her into a cloud if she bothered him too much. The dog doesn't seem to do anything but smile at her, which would be suspicious coming from a person but coming from an animal as big as she is actually scares her.

Leliana tugs her cloak around her shoulders and frowns up at the sky. Apollo is given to understand that is a common surface gesture, but strikes her personally as being staggeringly brave, to be willing to look into all that emptiness.

"Looks like rain, I expect," Leliana says.

Alistair groans in inexplicable displeasure, and Apollo nods in a way she hopes is understanding and agreeable.

It's probably some surfacer time-table, like "dawn" or "dusk." She's figured out that those mean "sunrise" and "sunset", which are perfectly straightforward words associated with fairly obvious points, so maybe "rain" means "sun-gone" or something.

Suddenly there's a very faint _pat_ sound, seeming to come from right in front of them. There's another, and then another.

"Great," Alistair says, accusing, "you had to say it! You brought it on us!"

"I did not!" Leliana squawks indignantly.

The _pat_ sounds are getting louder, faster, like pebbles scattering _—_

"What _—_ " Apollo starts. Something hits her right on the cheek, and she leaps backwards.

" _What_ _—_ " she starts again, bypassing casual and going straight for alarmed.

Around her, the others are just tugging up hoods on their cloaks. She looks between them, wildly, not understanding  _—_

More things start hitting her face, her hair, her shoulders, the rolled-up pack on her back, no matter how she spins around trying to dodge.

Wet. Her face is wet. Water?

Water like at _Ostagar_.

With that thought, she thinks she sees a flash of light out of the corner of her eye, but it's gone when she whips her head around. The horrible sound of a lyrium charge going off rattles through her ribcage, and she shouts, staggering back. Now she knows what's happening, not that it's more comforting. It's another surface battle, coming at them out of fucking nowhere, and they're totally unprepared.

"Alistair," she cries, her voice breaking, "Alistair, duck, something's happening, Leliana, duck! Everyone hide!"

There's no one else on the road around them as far as they can see, but what else could it be? There's falling water, there's flashing lights just out of her field of vision, and the sound of lyrium charges making her ears pound. There must be an army near. Not darkspawn, or she and Alistair would have sensed them, but someone is out there attacking them, and they're not ready for it, so they have to hide.

Except Alistair and the others are all standing perfectly at ease, hoods over their heads, watching her whirl around as if _she's_ the alarming one.

"Nug-fucking _Ancestors_ ," she snaps, grabbing Leliana by the glove and trying to yank her off the road, "come on! This happened at Ostagar, we're gonna get overwhelmed!"

"Wait," says Alistair, infuriatingly slow, "are you talking about the _rain_?"

"I don't _care_ what time it is!" Apollo bursts out. But no one else seems to be moving, so with great reluctance, she lets Leliana's hand drop.

There's another lyrium charge, and she nearly leaps out of her skin. Her hair is soaking, sticking to her face, just like at Ostagar. "Please," she says, a little desperate. Why aren't they reacting? It's like they don't hear anything, like they can't see the lights. All they've done is pulled their hoods up against the water. "Please, we're not safe."

Morrigan _tsk_ s. "She lived underground, you fools," she sneers, crossing her arms under her own cloak. "And the last time it rained was _—_ "

"At _Ostagar_ , you said," Alistair says, with a look of dawning comprehension that makes Apollo feel sick because she _doesn't_ comprehend and she's _frightened_. There's nothing she can kill. There's no enemy to attack. There's just the mounting sense of terror and dread, souring her throat, burning her lungs. "Look, Brosca, look _—_ it's alright. It's just water."

"I know what _water_ is!" Apollo shouts, voice tight. "Do you think we drink lava in Orzammar?"

"There's an image _—_ No, please don't look like that, I just mean _—_ water falls from the sky sometimes here, but it's harmless!" He smiles reassuringly at her, then looks uncertain. "Well, except for floods, I suppose _—_ "

"That is _not_ going to help," Leliana admonishes tartly.

The good thing about the water streaming through her hair down her face is that it hides the sudden bubble of tears Apollo can't stop. "What about the lights?" she says, small. "What about the explosives?"

She knows she sounds like a moss-sniffing child, and she'd be drakestone red with humiliation any other time, but no one else hears the explosions and it's terrifying in a bone-deep way she just doesn't understand.

She raises her hands above her head, hopelessly trying to block the water.

Alistair steps over immediately, throws his cloak over her head. Underneath, there are no flashing lights. The rolling sound of charges falls away. All that's left is the pattering rush of water against the thick oiled cloth.

His voice is muffled. "At Ostagar, that was a storm. The lights were lightning, and the sound you heard was thunder. Well _—_ most of it. I'm sure some of it really was explosives, or the fortress being hit. But this water... it's just rain."

Under his cloak, he presses a hand to her shoulder, and she turns her wet face against the armor at his hip. It's warm.

"There's no lightning here," he continues. "There's no thunder. Just a little rain. Everything's okay, Brosca." He starts walking, leading her off the road in the forest where the others have begun to erect their tents. The leaves under her boots are dark and shiny with... with the rain.

The lights, the noise, they don't come back.

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> title comes from the third part of snow patrol's _the lightning strike_
> 
> come hang out with me [on tumblr](http://against-stars.tumblr.com), it's mostly Dragon Age and me rambling or doodling my silly OCs.


End file.
